Mojave install failing when starting install to nvme

[DJEC]

Hello all! I am building my first ITX hackintosh with nvme as the main boot drive (previously all successful ATX and mATX builds with SATA SSD boot drive ) and something funky happened. As usual, the installer created through Unibeast launched from USB, I chose language, formatted nvme as APFS and the installation started. That initial part finished and the machine restarted like always but when selecting the boot drive through clover to finish the installation, the GPU kicks in natively and the installer starts it's last step but as soon as it begins the screen suddenly goes black, hangs for a minute and then the machine just restarts. Any ideas? I have the following specs:

Mobo: ASRock H310M-ITX/ac
CPU: Intel Core i5-8400
GPU: Sapphire NITRO+ RX 570 4GB
RAM: Team T-Force Delta II 16GB 2400 (2x8)
WiFi: Broadcom BCM94360CS2 (with 12+6 to NGFF m.2 adapter)
Cooler: Deepcool Captain 120 EX
Fans: Be Quiet! Pure Wings 80mm

 

[cmn699]

Hello all! I am building my first ITX hackintosh with nvme as the main boot drive (previously all successful ATX and mATX builds with SATA SSD boot drive ) and something funky happened. As usual, the installer created through Unibeast launched from USB, I chose language, formatted nvme as APFS and the installation started. That initial part finished and the machine restarted like always but when selecting the boot drive through clover to finish the installation, the GPU kicks in natively and the installer starts it's last step but as soon as it begins the screen suddenly goes black, hangs for a minute and then the machine just restarts. Any ideas? I have the following specs:

Mobo: ASRock H310M-ITX/ac
CPU: Intel Core i5-8400
GPU: Sapphire NITRO+ RX 570 4GB
RAM: Team T-Force Delta II 16GB 2400 (2x8)
WiFi: Broadcom BCM94360CS2 (with 12+6 to NGFF m.2 adapter)
Cooler: Deepcool Captain 120 EX
Fans: Be Quiet! Pure Wings 80mm

• No idea with just the description alone.
  • But, if you can provide other details you already know or can provide, we can have a better chance to suggest a possible cause and troubleshoot.
• Useful information to solve the problem :
  • BIOS options chosen for booting this macOSMojave USB installer Flash disk hopefully in UEFI Mode
  • The CLOVER folder in the USB Installer's hidden EFI Partition as a Zipped file.
  • The Photo of verbose boot screen(s) leading up to the screen turning black.
  • The Photo of the screen that comes up after the reboot .

 

[DJEC]

Hello @cmn699! Thanks for the fast reply. So my UEFI settings are as follows:

1. Fast boot - disabled
2. Launch CSM - disabled
3. vt-D - disabled
4. CFG-Lock - disabled

In the Clover boot screen (IMG_0543.jpg), I am currently past the initial USB install step as it booted into the Language selection and install correctly and it is now installing to the main nvme boot drive "Untitled".

Nothing shows up in verbose mode even after enabling it. I do make it to the install screen on the main nvme boot drive (IMG_0545.jpg) but after seeing that "13 minutes remaining" for a few seconds, the screen turns black with nothing for ~1 minute then reboots.

Does this provide any clues? I wish something could show up in verbose mode if that helps. But it seems to boot correctly to the install screen? I have attached a zip of the CLOVER folder.

Thanks!

 

[cmn699]

Hello @cmn699! Thanks for the fast reply. So my UEFI settings are as follows:

1. Fast boot - disabled
2. Launch CSM - disabled
3. vt-D - disabled
4. CFG-Lock - disabled

In the Clover boot screen (IMG_0543.jpg), I am already past the USB install as it booted correctly and the rest of the install is already available from the main nvme boot drive "Untitled". So I am booting from there.

Nothing shows up in verbose mode even after enabling it. I do make it to the install screen on the main nvme boot drive (IMG_0545.jpg) but after seeing that "13 minutes remaining" for a few seconds, the screen turns black with nothing for ~1 minute then reboots.

Does this provide any clues? I wish something could show up in verbose mode if that helps. But it seems to boot into the install screen?

Thanks!

• If you are coming back to this "3-iconed CBM screen" from the "13 Minutes Remaining Mojave Global icon screen repeatedly, then
  • boot the Recovery Icon and from the macOS Utilities screen >Reinstall option to try and see if the Installation will finish.

• Normally, when you reach the CBM screen with the 3rd icon (Recovery Disk) and boot the "Boot macOS Install from Untitled (your System Disk), it should go to Language and Region Selection> Apple Account Setup>iCloud Setup>Dark and Light selection >Desk Top Entry> Keyboard Selection....
  • If that is not the trajectory , then you need to use Recovery Disk>Reinstall route to complete the installation.

 

[DJEC]

@cmn699 So you are saying it is not normal if after the first restart from the USB install and booting from the system disk it goes straight to "13 minutes remaining"? Also, the second one is Boot Preloader, not a recovery. There does not seem to be a recovery boot option?

 

[cmn699]

• If you are coming back to this "3-iconed CBM screen" from the "13 Minutes Remaining Mojave Global icon screen repeatedly, then
  • boot the Recovery Icon and from the macOS Utilities screen >Reinstall option to try and see if the Installation will finish.

• Normally, when you reach the CBM screen with the 3rd icon (Recovery Disk) and boot the "Boot macOS Install from Untitled (your System Disk), it should go to Language and Region Selection> Apple Account Setup>iCloud Setup>Dark and Light selection >Desk Top Entry> Keyboard Selection....
  • If that is not the trajectory , then you need to use Recovery Disk>Reinstall route to complete the installation.

View attachment 406849

• Wait , wait. Don't go in a hurry for a Fresh Install.
  
• You have fast Hard disk , so installation can go very fast.
• I said if you get the recovery Disk icon there then the next boot will eventually go to Completion in the usual circumstances.
• If it does not, but comes right back to CBM screen, you may try another time to see if it is a transient problem from RAM .
• If it still returns too CBM , then try Recovery Disk boot> to MacOSMojave Utilities Screen.
• There you will see "MacOS Reinstall " (note the Re before Install) instead of "MacOS Install" . You choose Reinstall to try and complete .
• If that too fails, Fresh Install of Formatted Disk is your only option.

Understood?

 

[DJEC]

Ha, no worries, that is why I edited my original post. I felt it to be wrong to just Fresh Install without considering the solution. I will try that. I also found interesting posts which I am trying as well:

[Solved] Mojave installation stuck at 13 mins to remaining screen on ASUS PRIME H370-Plus

System: Motherboard : ASUS PRIME H370-Plus CPU : Intel i3 8100 RAM : Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB Power supply : Coolermaster MWE BRONZE 450 Today I tried to install Mojave 10.14.1 on my new system. I used Unibeast 9.0 to make a bootable USB. I also followed recommended BIOS Settings on this...

www.tonymacx86.com

 

[cmn699]

@cmn699 So you are saying it is not normal if after the first restart from the USB install and booting from the system disk it goes straight to "13 minutes remaining"? Also, the second one is Boot Preloader, not a recovery. There does not seem to be a recovery boot option?

If there is no recovery option , Fresh install is your only option.

When creating a USB , edit CLOVER.config.plist/Gui/ Hide Volume and add Preboot ( so that your CBM screen will look Clean and Lean and Not over-crowded with unwanted icons like Preboot etc after APFS formatting.)

 

[DJEC]

@cmn699 I actually kept trying to boot off of the Preboot option out of pure curiosity and after a few tries, the rest of the install went through. I have no idea why that is and what the Preboot option actually does, but it finally installed. Strangely though, it never asked me any of the normal questions about Apple ID etc, just went to this "13 minutes remaining" macOS UI screen and just... installed? If I could shrug any higher, I would to the sky. NO IDEA.

But after that, I selected boot Mojave from Untitled and the install finished.

 

[cmn699]

@cmn699 I actually kept trying to boot off of the Preboot option out of pure curiosity and after a few tries, the rest of the install went through. I have no idea why that is and what the Preboot option actually does, but it finally installed. Strangely though, it never asked me any of the normal questions about Apple ID etc, just went to this "13 minutes remaining" macOS UI screen and just... installed? If I could shrug any higher, I would to the sky. NO IDEA.

So the regular option show up, the Preloader, the Boot Mojave, and the Recovery.

But this is not the end. Oddly enough when booting Mojave off of the boot drive, I get the ( / ) Symbol so clearly there is still something wrong.

DJEC,

• I don't know how I missed your CLOVER upload on #3 .
  • I don't think I saw that initially; I just saw the CBM screen shot with 1 labeled icon of your macOSMojave UEFI USB Installer and two unlabeled Icons.
  • Did you add the CLOVER.zip later?
• The 3rd Unlabeled icon, I believed wrongly to be your Recovery Disk and the Middle one as the "Half baked" macOSMojave NVMe System Disk.
  • I missed your message about the 3rd icon being "Preboot". It has been a long day with a lot of things going on simultaneously both in the Forum and and away from the PC.
• Had I seen your CLOVER FileTree earlier, I would have intervened Right then, by asking you to fix that before proceeding any further.; the CLOVER has serious problem with missing kexts in the crucial Other Folder where CLOVER looks for kexts to help boot the system correctly.
• The second major problem was the unlabeled 3rd icon which I assumed to be Recovery , only to know much later that it was "Preboot".
• Even when you indicated it was NOT Recovery , I did not take another look at the screen on thread #3 to find your CLOVER.
• By the time I found the uploaded CLOVER, it was already too late and you had found another reference to having such issues with your kind of hardware as you wrote in thread #7
• I felt bad missing the CLOVER and took a detailed look after some rest and I have uploaded the screen Capture image of Clover FileTree to show a BIG problem of missing important kexts in the "Other" Folder.
• Before proceeding, I suggest you take look at my Posts here-> #1 and here-> #5
  • I made these after seeing many such problems in Forum Posts over the past few years and more frequently after Mojave release.
• If you are interested, take a look at my macOS Mojave installation on Mojave 14.2 on GA-Z370P D3+i5-8600K+IntelHD630 with illustrations. I had later changed its Graphics to MSI Radeon RX 560 without any editing in config.plist _Devices or Graphics SECTIONS for this card (needs CLOVER/kexts/Other Lilu+WhateverGreen+ApppleALC kexts _Latest release). Note it is a Z370P not H310 board as your hardware.